Agnes Pyatt and Frederick Augustus Wengler

Agnes Pyatt was born December 11, 1824, to John Pyatt of Franklin County, Missouri, and died March 20, 1901, in Allenton, St. Louis County, Missouri. She married on September 18, 1842, in Jefferson County, Missouri, (I find no record of this marriage in Franklin or Jefferson County) Frederick Augustus Wengler. Agnes Wengler is buried in the Allenton Cemetery, Allenton, St. Louis County, Missouri.

Just which John Pyatt was her father is in question. We know that it was not the pioneer, John Piatt, of Jefferson County, Missouri, as he had no daughter named Agnes at the time of his death in 1827. He could (and probably did) have had a son named John who died between 1824 when Agnes was born and 1827 when John Sr died. It is not known if Agnes had siblings. If her father died before producing other children, it would help explain her lack of close family (as her descendants claim to have no knowledge of her family). It is interesting though that her first child was born in Meremec Township, St Louis County, Missouri where John the pioneer lived and died and where William C Inks was closely tied to both John Pyatt and the Wenglers. I have to question why there wouldn't be a guardianship document in Franklin, Jefferson or St Louis County for Agnes if her father had died when she was young. Even if her mother was still living, she would legally be an orphan and under the care of the court and a guardian (usually the mother).

I have a theory that she may have been the daughter of Jacob and Olivia ?Inks (or McClure) Pyeatt as it would explain her close ties to their other children. Age-wise, she would fit in neatly with their other children. Did someone in writing of the Wenglers in the 1890s mistake the name of Agnes' brother for her father? John Pyeatt the son of Jacob and Olivia had lived in Franklin County for many years. If Agnes had not married until 1842, I would expect to see her with Jacob and Olivia - and it doesn't seem that she is. However, I believe John and Julia had females in their household the right age that were too old to be their children. I note that one of Jacob's sons, William Dudley Pyeatt, named a daughter Agnes and Jacob's daughter, Sarah Pyeatt Sledd, received money from Frederick Wengler (he was acting as a currier between Sarah and Mary Hildebrand).

This biography of Frederick Wengler appears in the 'Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, A Compendium of History and Biography for Ready Reference' edited by Howard L. Conard, Volume VI, The Southern History Company, 1901:
Frederick Wengler, a substantial and useful citizen of St. Louis County, was born September 25, 1821, in Prussia, near Verden, on the River Ruhr, a tributary of the famous Rhine. His father, William Wengler, immigrated with his family to America in 1834, first locating in St. Louis, MO and afterward removing to Franklin County, where he opened a farm near Fiddle Creek, and where he died from cholera during the terrible epidemic of 1849. He was a man of probity and industry, and he reared a family of seven children, all of whom entered upon lives of usefulness.
Frederick, the second of the children, was eleven years of age when his parents came to America. His education was limited to such as he acquired in the primary schools in his native land, supplemented with two months' instruction in a public school in this country. However, his native abilities and the enterprises in which he engaged, bringing him into association with busy and capable men, afforded compensation for school deprivation, and upon attaining manhood he was well equipped for the active and useful duties in which he engaged from the beginning of his busy life. Until he was fourteen years of age he remained with his parents, assisting as far as he was able in the labors of establishing a home for the familty, and being the second child, and one of but two of the children sufficiently old to work, his time was entirely taken up with such efforts.

In 1836, when he was fifteen years of age, he left home and entered the service of Judge Henry McCullough, at a point on Hamilton Creek, where is now the town of Glencoe, in St. Louis, County. Judge McCullough was the most wealthy and enterprising man in the settlement, and the owner of a tannery, a shoe factory and a bark and gristmill. Young Wengler remained in the employ of Judge McCullough for two and one half years, and learned tanning and shoemaking. He then located at Union, in Franklin County, and took employment as a journeyman shoemaker, but some months later he was seized with an attack of typhoid fever, from which he was disabled for six months. After his recovery, he returned to his friend and former employer, Judge McCullough, to whom he engaged himself for a term of three years, for an annual wage of $200, with board and washing. It was during this time that he laid the foundations of his fortune, through carefully husbanding the returns from his labors, and by judicious investments at opportune times. In the first year he entered a tract of 160 acres of land on Boone Creek, in Franklin County, the remainder of that beautiful valley being entered by John Pyatt, whose daughter, Agnes, he married shortly after completing his engagement with Judge McCullough, September 1, 1842.

He then located near the site of the present village of Allenton, in St. Louis County, where he proved title on a previous pre-emption on a 160-acre tract of rich farming land, paying the government price of $1.25 per acre. Upon this he built a house, and with a brother opened a tannery and shoeshop. He conducted this business until 1849, when the death of his father made it necessary for him to give his attention to the care of the paternal estate, which included a hotel and other interests at Gray's Summit in Franklin County, and, renting his farm, he removed to the latter named place and conducted the hotel for three years. At the expiration of that period he returned to Allenton, attracted by the activity incident to the building of the Pacific Railroad. He there furnished and superintended teams for grading work, at the same time managing his farm. During the same period he bought a town lot in Pacific, upon which he built a store, which he sold a year later at a satisfactory advance. He also invested in property in Allenton, and upon one of his lots erected a building for a home. Some time later he built an addition and engaged in a grocery, dry goods and clothing business. In 1857 he was appointed postmaster at Allenton, a position in which he was continued for the long period of thirty-two years.

Intensely patriotic, at the outbreak of the Civil War, he was one of those in whom General Frank P. Blair reposed implicit confidence, and under the direction of that distinguished patriot and soldier he applied himself energetically to the advancement of various measures contributing materially to the support of the Union cause in his neighborhood. Among these was the recruiting of a company of Home Guards, which was effected principally through the efforts of himself and Robert C. Allen, a younger man than himself, then in his employ, and when the organization was completed, Mr. Allen was chosen as captain and Mr. Wengler as a lieutenant. This company was a part of a battalion commanded by Major William C. Inks, an uncle of Mr. Wengler, and performed useful service, protecting the persons and property of loyalists, in encouraging enlistments for the regular volunteer regiments, and in neutralizing the efforts of the secessionists, but its most important duty, with which it was particularly charged, was in the protection of the railway bridges in the neighborhood necessary for military use. After the expiration of the three months' term of service for which their company was organized, Captain Allen and Lieutenant Wengler, with others, attached themselves to the Fremont Guards, commanded by Major George King, with which they served until that body was mustered out of service at Jefferson Barracks after General Fremont was superseded in the command of the Western Department by General Hunter.

Mr. Wengler then procured the appointment of Captain Allen as United States mail agent on the Missouri Pacific Railway. The latter named, however, soon re-entered the military service, and Mr. Wengler succeeded him in his mail position, in which he continued to serve for about three years. In 1864 he resigned to give his attention to his home concerns, managing his farm and superintending the operation of a stone quarry.

In 1870, he was appointed by the County Court of St. Louis County to the position of superintendent of the county farm, then located within the present city limits of St. Louis, and served in that capacity for a period of four years, and until he was retired as a result of a change in the political complexion of the county court. During his occupancy of this important office his duties were arduous, but were constantly performed with punctilious regard for public interests and a feeling of humane consideration for the great number of unfortunate people committed to his keeping.

Mr. Wengler was subsequently appointed superintendent of roads in St. Louis County, and in this position he performed efficient labor in the construction and maintenance of the various important highways throughout the county, serving until the adoption of the Scheme and Charter, in 1876, when the office which he occupied was abrogated.

On retiring from the road superintendency, he turned again to his personal concerns, including the management of his magnificent farm of 300 acres, and his mercantile business at Allenton, which he yet continues to conduct in association with his son, Robert E. Wengler, under the firm name of Wengler & Son.

In politics Mr. Wengler has been an earnest Republican from the founding of the party, and he has always taken active interest in maintaining its principles, believing its supremacy to be indispensable to the stability and prosperity of the people in commercial as well as in governmental lines. In religion he was reared in the Lutheran faith. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity, having affiliated with Pacific Lodge, No. 15, in 1858, and for fifteen years he has served as treasurer of that body. He also holds membership with Koehler Post, Grand Army of the Republic, at Melrose, St. Louis County.

Notwithstanding he has reached the advanced age of eighty years, he is in entire possession of his physical and mental faculties, and continues to give his personal attention to the management of his various interests, necessitating frequent visits to the city of St. Louis and to other points in the vicinity.

His wife, three years his junior, with whom he had lived for the unusual period of fifty-nine years, died early in 1901. Of their marriage were born thirteen children, of whom six are deceased. Those living are as follows: William C., a prominent businessman of Clayton, whose biography appears in this work; Emily J., widow of Robert C. Allen, deceased, who was a prosperous farmer and a man of commanding influence, who served as a captain in the Union Army during the Civil War, and afterward as judge of the St. Louis County Court, and as Representative in the Thirty-first and Thirty-second General Assemblies of Missouri; Frederick A., of Clayton, who was formerly employed in the office of the county collector; Charles O., for more than twenty years past a railway postal clerk in charge on the Missouri Pacific Railway between St. Louis and Kansas City, and who took the first fast mail out of St. Louis when that service was established; Jacob H., a carpenter at Allenton; Mamie M., wife of Allen M. Browning, railway postal clerk on the St. Louis & San Francisco Railway between St. Louis and Monett, and Robert E., a merchant and the postmaster at Allenton, Missouri.

The biography of Frederick and Agnes' son is also given in this work as follows: William Columbus Wengler was born in Meramec Township, St. Louis County, Missouri, October 5, 1844, son of Frederick and Agnes (Pyatt) Wengler. Frederick Wengler, the father, who was a tanner and shoemaker by trade, located in Allenton, St. Louis County, in 1859. He engaged in merchandising and still remains there. William Wengler, the grandfather, immigrated to the United States in 1835 and located on a farm on Fiddle Creek, Franklin County, Missouri.

Young Wengler acquired a good practical education in the public schools of his native town, after which he worked for his father as clerk in his store, and in 1869, became a partner under the firm name of Wengler & Son. In 1875, he withdrew from the firm and was appointed a clerk in the internal revenue office in St. Louis, and later was a clerk in the assessor's office. From 1876 to 1880 he was agent of the Missouri Pacific Railway at Allenton. In 1880 he became deputy sheriff under Robert Schnecko, and held that position two years. In January, 1883, he was appointed deputy county clerk for St. Louis County, and in 1886 was elected county clerk. At the expiration of his term he was re-elected to a second term, holding the office eight years. In 1895 he was elected justice of the peace for Clayton and served two years. In the fall of 1896 he was elected treasurer of St. Louis County, and in 1898 was re-elected for a second term. Mr. Wengler has been an efficient public official, and one universally popular with his constituents.

He was a member of Company B of Ink's battalion of the United States Reserve Corps during the Civil War, and was assigned to duty with the troops charged with the duty of guarding the railroad bridges from Pacific Junction to St. Louis. He is a member of Koehler Post No. 159, of the Grand Army of the Republic, and takes a great interest in Grand Army matters. In politics he is a Republican, and independent in his religious belief. He is affiliated with the Ancient Order of United Workmen, Mount Olive Saengerbund, and Central Township Farmers' Club. He is also a director of the St. Louis County Bank and president of the Clayton school board. He was married to Miss Lizzie C. Lamphier, of St. Louis County, October 25, 1869. They have had ten children -- Allen F.; Almira Agnes, wife of R. Lee Mudd; Catharine, Emma Alice (deceased); William; Robert Thomas; Jacob Henry; Belle; Jessie; and Cora Lee Wengler.

These are newspaper abstracts relating to Agnes Wengler's death: Wengler, Fred and wife are both low with colds, pneumonia and complications and old age. Later: Mrs. Wengler died early Wednesday morning. 3/22/1901 Transcript

Mrs. Fred Wengler, nee Agnes Pyatt, died at family home, Allenton, 3/20/1901, age 76. lived all her life in limits of St. Louis Co. 7 grown children, 25 desc of 2nd gen and 9 of 3rd. Husband is 79 and unable to leave his room. children are in order of birth: Wm. C. of Clayton, ex county clerk and treasurer; Mrs. R. C. Allen, widow, of Allenton; Jacob W., at Allenton; Fred A. of Clayton; Charles, mail agent for Missouri Pacific; Mrs. Maurice Browning of Allenton and Robert, pm and in charge of the family store at Allenton. buried village cem. 3/29/1901 Pacific. Transcript

From correspondance with Dorothy and Mayo Votaw in 1999: "We are also seeking info on Mayo's Votaw family. His father, Marion Votaw b: 9-20-1883 in House Springs, MO d: 8-31-1930 in St. Louis. Married Myrtle Sue Wengler b 9-13-1893 in Allenton, MO. Marion's father, William Adam Votaw b: 8-11-1845 d: 2-14-1933 m: Rhoda Frances Kidd 6-3-1866 they are buried Kidd Cemetery, House Springs, MO. We have William Adam's death certificate that gives his father's name as W. A. Votaw & says mother's name unknown--info given by their son, Clint Votaw. We are unable to locate a W. A. Votaw born maybe about 1820. Would appreciate any help. Dorothy & Mayo Votaw"

Sources:

Research of Dorothy and Mayo Votaw

Scharff's History of St. Louis, 1830

1850 Franklin Co, MO, census

1880 Allenton, St Louis Co, MO, census

Encyclopedia of the History of Missouri, A Compendium of History and Biography for Ready Reference edited by Howard L. Conard, Volume VI, The Southern History Company, 1901